A passport is a document issued by a national government for international travel and it certifies the identity and nationality of the holder.
Permanent South African passports and travel documents (machine-readable documents) are printed only in Pretoria, South Africa, from where they are dispatched to the offices of application. Applications made within South African borders can be submitted to any office of the Department of Home Affairs; applications made outside of the country can be submitted to your nearest South African embassy or mission.
I recently had to apply for a new South African passport, and found the process to be a lot quicker and less daunting than expected.
Apply for your passport at your local Department of Home Affairs or make an appointment online.
As your old passport expires you must apply for a new one – the old one cannot be extended – and the cost of this at present is +/- R600. You need to apply at your local Department of Home Affairs and bring with you the following documents:
-
Your old passport
-
ID book and a photocopy of your ID
-
Two colour photographs that comply with the specifications
-
Your R600 (cash only no cards)
You must have a South African identity document to apply for a passport, or if you are a child, a birth certificate.
If you are travelling on official government business, you may apply for an official passport. Diplomats get a diplomatic passport.
The Department of Home Affairs has launched an online booking system for some offices. To book an appointment go to https://services.dha.gov.za/#/authenticate/identity. You can also apply online with an easy-to-use, flexible process allows you to do all of the following within a safe, secure, online environment (https://ehome.dha.gov.za/ehomeaffairsv3)
You will fill in a DHA-73 form (Passport Application form; with signature and left thumb print on arrival – don't try to save time and download this online as that will not be accepted and you will need to fill the form in again anyway. It was Friday the 13th and so this did seem to cause some gremlins – the receipts printer did not work for the first hour and a half, and a short power cut (literally a minute) caused all the systems to go off-line and necessitated a re-boot. So a process that took 2 hours would have been substantially quicker if these issues had not been present.
3 weeks to the day an SMS notification was received that the passport was ready for collection.
In order to travel your passport needs to be valid for a minimum of 6 months
Applying for Documents for Travel Purposes
Documents for travel purposes are issued to South African permanent residence permit holders who cannot obtain travel documents from their countries of origin. These documents are only valid for a period of 5 years.
You need a passport for regional and international travel. Passports need to be valid for 6 months after your intended return date and have at least two blank pages. Failure to follow these rules may result in the airline denying you boarding.
Children and infants will also require a passport for any regional or international travel.
NOTICE: The Department of Home Affairs no longer issues Temporary Passports.
Just a note – when sitting in the queue people asked me where are you going on holiday. To which I replied nowhere, my passport is expiring in 6 months time so I need to renew it. In order to travel your passport needs to be valid for a minimum of 6 months from your date of return, so don't wait until your passport has expired to renew. If you suddenly need to travel urgently you may not be able to have your passport processed in time, and although you can apply for a temporary passport, some countries do not accept a temporary passport. So rather be safe than sorry and always have your passport up to date – you never know when you may need to travel!
